What's become of the people in this photo?

This week, as CPJ finalized its annual list of journalists imprisoned for their work, my thoughts turned to Eritrea and this photo. Taken in 2000, near the end of a two-year border war with neighboring Ethiopia and during the heyday of a burgeoning private press movement in Africa's youngest nation, the photo shows the staff of Setit newspaper.

To me, the photo exudes the excitement and camaraderie of
those engaging in a vital, nascent enterprise during an era of change and
promise. If I didn't know better I would say the staff of Setit are right now ready to print their next twice-weekly
edition.

But I do know better. I know that no edition of Setit has been seen since September 18,
2001; and I know that one person in this photo, Fesshaye Yohannes (back, fourth
from left), was arrested and is reported to have died
in secret government custody--some say the result of untreated torture
wounds; another, Semret Seyoum (second from right), was, a few months later, caught
near the Sudanese border while attempting to flee the country. He spent nearly
one year in prison, shackled in solitary confinement for most of it. And I know
Seyoum and two others in this photo--Aaron Berhane (seated) and Tedros Abraham
(far right) have since fled their homes, enduring hunger and dangerous,
physically brutal journeys across borders--a journey that proved fatal for one journalist last
year. They now struggle to survive in exile, fearing every day that their
family members will face retribution. And I know that one other reporter, who
is also co-owner of Setit, Dawit Isaac
(not pictured), was arrested on September 23, 2001, and is still in jail.

Shortly after I started at CPJ in August 2001 as its
Journalist Assistance program coordinator, Eritrea's government rounded up
senior news staff at virtually all private media outlets and sent dozens of other journalists
on the run as part of a sweeping crackdown on political dissent. My job was
to develop a program to provide urgent help to journalists facing severe
persecution. The crisis in the Eritrean media provided a quick initiation. But
as harsh, severe, and comprehensive as the crackdown was, no one imagined at
the time it would also be described as enduring. Around the 2003 anniversary of
the crackdown, I was speaking with the managing editor of another private
publication, Milkias
Mihreteab, who barely escaped arrest and went into exile in 2001. We both
expressed sadness and disbelief that so many of his colleagues still languished
two years later in prison. Another five years have passed since that conversation
and no end is in sight.

Today, Eritrea
remains the fourth worst jailer of journalists worldwide behind China, Cuba,
and Burma.
Eritrean prisons hold the most journalists in Africa,
with not one journalist facing formal charges despite being behind bars for
years at a time. Eritrea's
secret prisons also hold all but four of at least 17 journalists worldwide who
are being in secret locations.

I know this photo could not be taken today. Even those who
have survived are far flung: in Canada,
Sweden, other parts of
Africa, and some still in Eritrea.
But I also know that they and other journalists inside and outside the country
will not give up hoping for change, and that it will come. Setit itself stated in an open letter to the government published
just a couple weeks before authorities closed down the paper: "People can
tolerate hunger and other problems for a long time, but they can't tolerate the
absence of good administration and justice."

In the photo of the staff of Setit, from left to right:

Eden Iyasu, entertainment reporter

Woldeab, computer technician

Hizbawi Mengisteab, sports reporter

Fessehaye (Joshua) Yohannes, reporter and co-owner, arrested
on September 26, 2001; died in prison in 2007

Senait, secretary

Semret Seyoum, reporter and co-owner, arrested January 6, 2002, and released December 2002; in exile in Sweden

Tedros Abraham, reporter, in exile

Aaron Berhane (seated), editor in chief and co-owner, in
exile in Toronto

Dawit Issak, reporter and co-owner, is not in the photo. Isaak
was arrested September 23, 2001, and is still being held.

Elisabeth Witchel, a CPJ consultant, served for many years as the organization’s journalist assistance coordinator. She also launched CPJ’s Global Campaign Against Impunity.

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